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Dodd’s Uneasy Dance With Drug Lobbyists

As Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut assumes a central role in the debate over health care, the pharmaceutical industry has helped finance efforts to bolster his image back home as he braces for a potentially bruising re-election contest.

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The industry’s campaign-style push for Mr. Dodd, part of a larger effort to highlight the work of certain lawmakers around the country, portray him as a defender of ordinary citizens in brochures sent to more than 100,000 homes in Connecticut and in a 30-second television spot that ran for three weeks.

For Mr. Dodd, the support provided by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, the industry’s lobbying arm, comes at a politically sensitive, if not awkward, time. He is trying to combat a perception that he has become too close to powerful interest groups in Washington after 28 years in the Senate.

As part of that effort, Mr. Dodd’s own campaign has produced two videos, “Lobbyists Cry” and “The Blues,” presenting him as a politician who has caused grief for Washington lobbyists. He also sent a fund-raising solicitation asserting that lobbyists do not have access to him.

“The lobbyists can’t get meetings with Chris,” the solicitation says. “He won’t return their phone calls. He even yells at them during hearings.”

But even as Mr. Dodd attempts to distance himself from these special interests, he is clearly relying on their help as he prepares for his re-election, a reality seized upon by his Republican critics.

He has not only benefited from the hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertisement courtesy of the pharmaceutical industry and Families U.S.A., a health-care advocacy group the industry teamed up with. But a few weeks ago, Mr. Dodd attended a $1,500-a-plate campaign fund-raiser sponsored by lobbyists representing U.S. Oncology, a provider of cancer drugs and services.

Mr. Dodd’s aides say he has often opposed legislation sought by the pharmaceutical industry and other groups that have contributed to him. Jay Howser, Mr. Dodd’s campaign manager, also said the senator had nothing to do with the decision to run the ads and described PhRMA’s partner in the ad campaign, Families U.S.A., as a liberal group.

“We have no control over what these groups do,” he said.

The efforts drug companies have undertaken to promote  and, presumably, to curry favor with  Mr. Dodd underscore the major stake they have in the debate in Congress over how to pay for coverage of the uninsured.

PhRMA has pledged to provide $80 billion over 10 years to help cover the costs of the health-care overhaul. But powerful House members do not think the drug makers have given enough.

Other lawmakers also benefited from the ad campaign. The drug industry, along with Families U.S.A., also ran commercials praising a few dozen other members of Congress, largely from states where drug companies have a large presence, according to PhRMA.

But Mr. Dodd, a senior Health Committee member, is no ordinary lawmaker. He has assumed the leading role on the committee that his friend, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, had until he was stricken by a brain tumor.

“Obviously, Senator Dodd is a player in the health-care reform debate,” acknowledged Ken Johnson, a PhRMA spokesman. “He also represents a state where our companies have a large economic footprint.”

The organization would not say how much was spent on the television spot and brochures promoting Mr. Dodd. But according to the research firm TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks advertising spending, it cost about $187,000 to run the television spots from May 30 to June 22. The brochure mailings, in turn, cost at least $40,000, according to political consultants who are not involved in the race.

The support Mr. Dodd has received from PhRMA comes at a crucial time politically for him, with polls showing voters in his home state disapproving of his performance. The group’s campaign coincided with an advertising blitz Mr. Dodd undertook from May 28 to July 2 at a cost of nearly $500,000, according to his campaign. Rob Simmons, a former Republican congressman, is expected to challenge Mr. Dodd in the November 2010 election.

Mr. Dodd’s problems stem in part from the view among some voters that he has developed cozy ties with the corporations he is supposed to oversee in his capacity as a senior member of several committees with jurisdiction over the financial, health care and other industries.

In some ways, he is to blame for this perception.

In March he faced a firestorm over his support for a measure that would serve to exempt American International Group, a big campaign contributor of his, from Congressional efforts to limit some executive compensation packages to Wall Street firms that received federal bailout money. After initially denying that he was behind the measure, he acknowledged that his staff introduced it at the urging of the Obama administration.

That came only months after he was accused of receiving preferential treatment from Countrywide Financial Corporation, which assigned him to a V.I.P. program in 2003 when he refinanced mortgages on his homes in Connecticut and Washington. Mr. Dodd said that he did not believe that he received preferential rates, however.

Mr. Dodd recently went to Martha’s Vineyard for a retreat organized by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, where 30 senators mingled with party donors, including lobbyists.

Over his decades in Congress Mr. Dodd has raised more than $550,000 from drug company representatives, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

In addition, Mr. Dodd’s wife, Jackie Clegg, was paid nearly $80,000 as a member of the board of Cardiome Pharma Corporation, according to the documents most recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ms. Clegg also holds more than 200,000 shares in Javelin Pharmaceuticals, where she is also a board member.

Colleen Flanagan, a Dodd spokeswoman, said Ms. Clegg consulted an ethics lawyer to see if the board positions posed a conflict of interest given her husband’s Senate role. “Her career is entirely her own,” she added.

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US »A version of this article appeared in print on July 28, 2009, on page A18 of the New York edition.